1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to measuring devices. Particularly, this invention is directed to a measuring tape which includes a length substantially equal to an industry standardized length work piece and in one aspect having at least two sets of co-extending incrementally increasing measuring units printed thereon which run in opposite directions and are offset by a fixed predetermined amount to enable the user to quickly mark for cut off the unwanted amount of the work piece with the accounted for predetermined amount.
2. Prior Art
There exist numerous types of rulers for various types of applications. For example, there are carpenter""s rules, framing rules, and protractors and tapes. The carpenter""s rules are commonly marked with indicia, such as a plurality of spaced lines along the length of the rules. The rule also includes sequentially increasing numbers along the length thereof and which starts at one point and increase as it moves towards the other point. These rules also vary in the number system employed. For example, some rules provide measurement in increments of inches while others use increments of meters.
Flexible tapes, such as measuring tapes used in the fields of construction, commonly vary in length from twenty four to sixty eight feet in length. These tapes are usually made of plastic or metal and are fabricated in a manner to be spring loaded and removably retract within a housing. The housing is of a hand held size and is made of two symmetrical halves which are removably connected to one another by screws. The tape is numbered such that the markings increase as the tape is pulled from the housing. This first point of the tape which is pulled from the housing typically has a flange mounted on its point which serves two purposes. One is to keep the tape from retracting completely within the housing another is to permit the user to dispose the flange about an edge of a workpiece and move the housing along the work piece thus drawing the tape out of the housing. This permits length of the workpiece to be marked to a size. One patent U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,421 teaches of a rule having two main duplicate scales which start at opposite ends of the rule and run in ascending order in two different directions.
While these tapes are very useful for many applications in construction, there remains a need to improve the means for quickly enabling measuring and marking standard industry length work pieces in commercial applications. In the case of commercial drywall applications, these pieces come in standard lengths of twelve feet. The drywall is frequently cut to size a particular wall. The wall length opening is measured and the length cut. With large work pieces it is often desirable to determine the length to cut off the pieces because it is shorter in length and easier for the user to handle the tape and measure the shorter cut off piece. Of course this requires subtracting the length of the work piece from a standard twelve foot work piece. For some workers this is time concerning and mathematical problem.
The present invention solves this problem and provides the worker with measuring tape which can enable these cut offs to be quickly measured and made. The present invention further aims to provide the ability to calculate such cut off amount with the inclusion of an additional predetermined amount of material.
It is an object to improve measuring tapes.
It is another object to ease the method of measuring in the field of construction.
It is yet another object to provide a measuring tape calculates a cut off amount of material with the inclusion of an additional predetermined amount of material to be removed to provide an allowance whereby the desired retained material will measure slightly less than the measurement for cutoff.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a flexible measuring tape for use with a fixed length work piece, such as a standard drywall piece, which includes a measuring tape member which is of a length substantially equal to the work piece, wherein the member has a side which includes a first set of incremental sequentially increasing measuring units printed thereon which begin at a first point of the member and are equidistantly spatially positioned along the member through to a second point, and a second set of incremental sequentially increasing measuring units printed thereon which begin at the second point of the member and are equidistantly spatially positioned along the member through to the first point. The measuring work piece (i.e., 48xe2x80x3) plus the predetermined incremental amount (i.e., xc2xcxe2x80x3).
Other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon viewing the drawings and reading the detailed description hereafter.